Music of China
Music of China
Timeline • Samples
General Topics
Traditional Chinese instruments • Musicology •
Chinese orchestra • Chinese Musicians’
Association
Genres
C-pop: (Cantopop/Mandopop) • Rock • Hip hop
• Opera
Traditional Forms
Chinese style Buddhist music • Taoist music •
Yayue
Media and Performance
Music
festivals
Midi Modern Music Festival
Music
media
Radio stations • China Record
Corporation
National
anthem
Historical anthems • Patriotic /
Revolutionary • March of the
Volunteers • Three Principles of the
People
Regional Music
Anhui • Fujian • Gansu • Guangdong • Guangxi
• Guizhou • Hainan • Hebei • Heilongjiang •
Henan • Hong Kong • Hunan • Hubei • Inner
Mongolia • Jiangsu • Jiangxi • Jilin • Liaoning •
Macau • Manchuria • Qinghai • Shandong •
Shaanxi • Shanxi • Sichuan • Tibet • Xinjiang •
Yunnan • Zhejiang
The music of China dates back to the dawn
of Chinese civilization with documents and
artifacts providing evidence of a well-de-
veloped musical culture as early as the Zhou
Dynasty (1122 BC – 256 BC). Today, the mu-
sic continues a rich traditional heritage in
one aspect, while emerging into a more con-
temporary form at the same time.
Legend
The legendary founder of music in Chinese
mythology was Ling Lun, who made bamboo
pipes tuned to the sounds of birds.
Dynastic Era (1122 BC – 1911)
According to Mencius, a powerful ruler once
asked him whether it was moral if he pre-
ferred popular music to the classics. The an-
swer was that it only mattered that the ruler
love his subjects. The Imperial Music Bureau,
first established in the Qin Dynasty (221–07
BC), was greatly expanded under the Emper-
or Han Wu Di (140–87 BC) and charged with
supervising court music and military music
and determining what folk music would be of-
ficially recognized. In subsequent dynasties,
the development of Chinese music was
strongly influenced by foreign music, espe-
cially Central Asia.
The oldest known written music is Youlan
or the Solitary Orchid, attributed to Con-
fucius (see guqin article for a sample of tab-